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Azerbaijan Adoptions Resume but Slowly

This notice replaces the notice of April 29, 2005.

Intercountry adoptions from Azerbaijan resumed in August 2005, after an April 2004 suspension in order to conduct an investigation into adoption practices.  To date, only three American families have completed adoptions.  Many families continue to face bureaucratic delays.

In November 2005, the Baku City Department of Health, a key player in the selection and referral of children in international adoptions, saw a complete turnover of personnel. As a result, many dossiers were, again, held up for an extended period of time and have still not been approved by that department.  In addition, during the transition from one administration to another, two children who already had referrals to American families were re-referred to Azerbaijani families. 

This year the Azerbaijani Parliament will consider a new law on international adoption. However, there are no drafts of the law available and the U.S. Embassy in Baku has not received any information on this new law.  The Embassy will continue to seek clarification from the Azerbaijani Government about the future of adoptions and encourage international adoption as a viable option when domestic adoption is not possible for an Azerbaijani child. 

At this time the Department of State urges all U.S. citizens thinking of adopting in Azerbaijan to consider very carefully the likely difficulties and uncertainty.  Although adoptions are technically open, a number of U.S. adoption service providers have decided the situation is in too much a state of flux for them to operate comfortably.  There are no guarantees that adoptions will be achieved on a regular basis and in a transparent manner.

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